Mechanism of Formation of Plane Surfaces with an Electric Arc

Abstract

A new method is presented for two similar plane surfaces of high-performance dimensional treatment with an electric arc (DTEA) where the components are hard-to-cut materials in a bipolar mode without the traditional application of an electrode tool. In comparison to DTEA with the use of an electrode tool, this new method provides an increase in the efficiency of treatment by 230%. It is shown that for passing from unipolar DTEA of VK-15 hard alloy with a graphite electrode-tool to bipolar DTEA of two samples of the same alloy, a considerable increase in heat energy of the cathode area is found due to the energy of the arc column, which can overrun the heat energy of the anode area and lead to inversion, that is, a change in the direction of the prevailing electric erosion. This increase in the heat energy of the arc cathode area explains the growth in the productivity of the bipolar DTEA of two samples of the hard alloy VK-15 over the unipolar one.